Email Marketing - Cost-Effective Communication

What are the basics of a successful email marketing campaign?
 

According to the latest issue of eBusiness Live from Enterprise Ireland, Email marketing can be a relatively cheap and effective way to stay in touch with customers, win new business and advertise.

In these recessionary times,email marketing is proving especially popular among small businesses with limited marketing budgets. It's easy to see why. According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing  out-performed all other direct marketing channels in a  Return On Investment analysis.

It's the same in the B2B world. Email marketing was voted the most popular promotional tool in a recent online survey of UK business advisers, conducted by the Marketing Innovation Forum. Email marketing received 20 percent of votes, with PR and social media coming second and third with 15 percent and 14 percent of the vote, respectively.

So, what are the basics of a successful email marketing campaign?
 
Make a list

The first component of a successful campaign is having an audience. Use every legitimate opportunity to gather email addresses. Make sure you have a sign-up form displayed prominently on your company website. Also include sign-up forms on the company blog, Facebook page and on online checkout pages. In other words, give potential customers every opportunity to join your list.

One good way to get new list members is to run competitions and promotions which people can enter by submitting their email address. Be sure to make it clear that the user is also signing up to receive your newsletter.
 
Are there existing email newsletters or sites that reach your target audience? If so, consider placing a small ad there and enticing people to join your list that way.

You can also ask people to join your list offline and, if they grant permission, collect their email addresses at meetings, trade shows and conferences.

Create content
Make sure you don't annoy customers or potential clients by sending out too many messages or sending out the same messages on a regular basis. Ideally, you should only email your customers when you have something useful to share.

Always remember to make sure that your emails include an opt-out option.

What sort of information makes for good email content?

• New product or service announcements.
• Special discounts or limited-time offers.
• Products or services that may be useful to your audience.
• New partnerships or collaborations.
• Surveys or requests for feedback.
• Industry commentary, tips and other information that might be useful to your audience.
• Client testimonials.
• Decide whether you want to write the content yourself or outsource its production to a third  party.

Tell a friend

Consumers will forward marketing emails to their friends, colleagues and family, if they think the content worthwhile, according to a recent US-based survey conducted by the Direct Marketing Association.

Emails that include deal offers and discounts were found to be the most popularly forwarded emails. Free delivery offers were forwarded by 18 percent of respondents. Meanwhile, a whopping 60 percent said they are likely to forward humorous and informative emails.So make sure to include text or a link in your marketing emails that reminds customers to forward the email to a friend. Consider adding an incentive such a discount for that customer if their friend signs up to your email newsletter or makes a purchase.
 
Choose your distribution

So, your list is in place and the content has been created. The next step is selecting the right package to distribute your emails.

Make sure that any package you select offers the following features:

1. The ability to design pages that look good in your customer's inboxes.
2. Reliable and detailed customer data management facilities.
3. The ability to segment your list into different audiences so that you can easily create targeted campaigns.
4. Automatic unsubscribe features.
5. Tracking and delivery.
6. Access to metrics that show, for example, how many emails were opened, what links wer  clicked on, and increases and decreases in subscriber numbers.

Testing
Remember to test your emails before you send them out to your entire list. This will give you an opportunity to iron out potential problems. For example, try viewing your email in different web browsers to find out whether it is displaying correctly. Click through on all the links to make sure that they are working properly. Also, make sure that the 'unsubscribe' function is working by testing it with a real email account.

Source: eBusiness Live

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